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Sports

Baseball: Cal Loss to SRV Puts Playoffs in Question

Grizzlies lose fourth-straight game

 The last thing the California High  baseball team needed before the NCS playoff selection is a losing streak.

But after a 7-2 loss to San Ramon Valley on Thursday, the Grizzlies have dropped their last four games, putting them one game under .500 on the year.

According to coach Dan Ward, the problem in recent games has been the lack of a consistent offense.

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"We're hitting the ball, but we're just not finding the holes," he said. "We've got to find a way to get hits, though. We need to win the next two games to have a chance at NCS ... Without a winning record we can't get in."

Wins in the final two games of the EBAL season will just barely give the Grizzlies the necessary record to qualify, but they will have to step up their performance to beat their two remaing opponents, Livermore and De La Salle, and keep their NCS hopes alive.

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Cal junior Steven Moen's solo home run off of SRV pitcher John Hochstatter in the fourth was the highlight for the Grizzlies on Thursday.

"Coming into the game, there was a lot of hype about facing up against (Hochstatter)," Moen said. "But I just wanted to go in there and get a hard swing, and it ended up going out."

But as only one of the Grizzlies' five hits, Moen's shot to center wasn't enough to counter the Wolves' outstanding offense.

Senior pitcher Ryan Stein got off to a good start for the Grizzlies, but ran into trouble in the fifth when SRV scored four runs.

"I thought Stein pitched well, but he did have that one tough inning in the fifth," Ward said. "We've just got to make better pitches overall, to induce ground balls or pop-ups so we can get the outs."

Leading SRV was senior Ben Fishman, who went 3 for 3 and scored twice. But with six different players recording RBI's for the Wolves, it was obvious that all the players contributed to the victory.

"Today's game was one of those where we just put the ball in play and did what we needed to," SRV coach Chris deClercq said. "There were some individual players with nice hits, but it was really a team efort that got the win."

San Ramon has won five of its last six games and is likely to finish third in EBAL. deClercq said the team's main focus is to continue playing well as the NCS playoffs begin.

Cal will play at Livermore on Tuesday and desparately needs a win against the Cowboys to stay in the running for NCS.

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San Ramon Valley 7, California 2

SRV (15-7, 8-4 EBAL) 010 042 0 7 14 0
Cal (10-11-1, 6-6 EBAL) 000 110 0 2 5 0

SRV (ab-r-h) Fishman 3-2-3, Cox 4-1-1, Bobby Geren 4-1-1, Massoni 4-0-1, Quinlan 4-0-2, Bedard 4-1-3, Drobny 4-0-1, Love 2-0-1, Tetzloff 1-0-0, Dutto 3-2-1, Brett Geren 1-0-0; Totals 34-7-14.

Cal (ab-r-h) Leon 3-0-1, Sarmenta 3-0-0, Moen 3-1-1, Peter 2-0-1, Elliott 3-0-0, Kochan 3-1-1, Guardino 2-0-0, Coll 1-0-0, Truex 3-0-1, Smith 2-0-0; Totals 25-2-5.

Pitching
SRV: Hochstatter 4+ IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 K, 0 BB; Popavich 3 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 K, 1 BB.
Cal: Stein 5 IP, 5 R, 5 ER, 10 H, 5 K, 0 BB; Elliott 2 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 K, 1 BB.

Batting
2B - Kochan (Cal), Bedard (SRV), Love (SRV); HR - Moen (Cal); RBI - Moen (Cal), Truex (Cal), Love (SRV), Bobby Geren (SRV), Quinlan (SRV), Bedard 2 (SRV), Cox (SRV), Massoni (SRV).

Next game: California at Livermore on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.; San Ramon Valley atFoothill on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.

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